During each show on their This is Why tour, Paramore creates space for their fans. Frontwoman Hayley Williams often takes a moment to express to the crowd that their being safe and comfortable at their concerts is as beneficial to everyone on stage as it is to everyone in the audience. She said a version of this at their two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden last week, but Williams hasn’t been able to shake the moment from the first of those two nights when she felt as though she violated that mutual connection.
“Yes, I will embarrass both of you. Both of you need to find somewhere else to take care of that shit because that’s not happening here,” Williams told two fans on the first night when the band had to stop “Figure 8” to address what appeared to be a fight or disagreement in the general admission pit. They were both removed from the show, but not before the entire encounter was captured by other fans and posted online. The clip went viral on TikTok with commenters praising Williams for stepping in and maintaining that safe space she speaks so much about.
“I have not been able to shake the feeling that I abused my responsibility and my platform in that moment… that I hurt those two in a way that will outlast the momentary discomfort of their poor concert etiquette,” Williams wrote in a lengthy Discord post. “When I saw their faces in the video, I didn’t see the smug smiles that some commenters criticized them for. I saw embarrassment and I cried for them. I’m telling you, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. So, if you are those two people… I am sorry for whatever shame or embarrassment I may have caused you. I’m not telling you that it’s perfectly fine to act entitled or ignorant at a show … I’m just saying that I’m sorry that I handled the whole situation like the arbiter of the same type of cancel culture that doesn’t often teach or lead in any productive way.”
The post, which comes in at nearly 1500 words, covers a lot of ground. Within that one moment on stage at MSG — which really did only last a moment before Paramore restarted the song and continued with their performance — Williams flashed back through years of experiences that informed her reaction, including being a kid who fit in with no one and everyone all at once.
“My insides were triggered from numerous personal experiences not fit for a blog post or a microphone on stage at an arena,” she wrote, though the post does nod to her memories of feeling like an outcast searching for belonging as a child of young, divorced parents. “My outsides were trying to maintain control of a situation I felt that myself and my bandmates were responsible for. Without the opportunity for a proper back and forth (and with a looming, strict show-curfew in the back of my mind), I bared my teeth like a mother wolf. I embarrassed the hell out of these two people, without truly knowing what the situation was.”
The whole encounter has Williams thinking about how to engage with conflict in a more productive way, including the ones that are a bit more serious than some concertgoers pushing in a pit. During a recent appearance at Adjacent Festival in New Jersey, the singer told the audience that she was “very comfortable” talking politics, declaring: “And if you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re fucking dead to me. So, is that comfortable enough for anyone?” It was another instance in which she was praised and cheered on in the moment and online, but was less certain when revisiting the thought later on.
“I hate that there isn’t always a simple answer to even the world’s silliest problems. A ‘good’ or ‘bad’ bin to use for clean up,” she wrote. “I hate that the only thing I really know to say to people I deem racist or bigoted in any way is ‘you’re dead to me; when I know that message isn’t the kind that’s going to change a hateful heart. How can I feel soft and tragic about it in one moment and ragey and rigid the next? Because that’s human. The ‘both/and’ of all things is my own life’s boss-level adversary.”
Across both the pit spat and the DeSantis of it all, Williams isn’t necessarily backtracking — she’s just searching for a root that allows her to stand her ground on stronger foundation than she has been.
“At present, the world we are navigating is fearsome and polarizing. Music is not often the escape that it once was. Riding the line between using a platform responsibly and fostering the opportunity for respite takes what feels like an unattainable wisdom,” Williams wrote, taking into consideration the overlap between her artistic platform and her human existence. “There’s also the sense that it’s my job to protect the familial spaces we are co-creating with audiences around the world. It feels like my duty to help people feel a sense of safety and belonging enough to let go and be completely present at a Paramore show.”
Concluding the post with hopes of taking the learned lesson into future shows, she stated: “When someone falls, it should be from dancing and losing their footing — and someone should pick them up. I don’t want us to have to stop a show for physical aggression ever again. Rest assured, I will still have a person removed if necessary. I’ll just try with all my heart not to make it seem like some biblical era public execution next time. Thanks for reading.”